My sister and fellow Gemini (although she says we are nothing alike!), Louise was the perfect partner for my early morning sleuthing. We started out at 6:30am. The woods were quiet and wet with dew. The beauty immediately woke me up and gratitude filled my lungs as I breathed it in completely.

Since the pictures will no doubt be worth a thousand words, here goes:

We were almost to the top of the mountain when we spotted her a bit off the trail, surrounded by a small rock circle, as if someone had thought to protect her; possibly seeing her beauty for the first time, as I had some years ago, and with breath catching in their chest, had known that she was fragile and needed care. She was completely alone and very small although her presence in the rocky landscape felt huge to me. The pink pouch drops off of the plant and looks like a slipper. The pouch is used to catch the insects needed to fertilize the flower. Lady Slipper is in the orchid family and is the state flower of Minnesota…..just a shout out to my InterPlay friends in the land of lakes….have you seen any lately? Send pictures!!!!

Next up: A birthday nap with my buddy, Scout!

Imagine a woman who believes it is right and good she is a woman.
A woman who honors her experience and tells her stories.
Who refuses to carry the sins of others within her body and life.

Imagine a woman who trusts and respects herself.
A woman who listens to her needs and desires.
Who meets them with tenderness and grace.

Imagine a woman who acknowledges the past’s influence on the present.
A woman who has walked through her past.
Who has healed into the present.

Imagine a woman who authors her own life.
A woman who exerts, initiates, and moves on her own behalf.
Who refuses to surrender except to her truest self and wisest voice.

Imagine a woman who names her own gods.
A woman who imagines the divine in her image and likeness.
Who designs a personal spirituality to inform her daily life.

Imagine a woman in love with her own body.
A woman who believes her body is enough, just as it is.
Who celebrates its rhythms and cycles as an exquisite resource.

Imagine a woman who honors the body of the Goddess in her changing body.
A woman who celebrates the accumulation of her years and her wisdom.
Who refuses to use her life-energy disguising the changes in her body and life.

Imagine a woman who values the women in her life.
A woman who sits in circles of women.
Who is reminded of the truth about herself when she forgets.

Imagine yourself as this woman.

Then there is the fact that it is approaching the end of February and the next phase of “the card deck project” is not really underway.  Sure I have done a few things, but not enough to get something going in the wholesale market.  That could be it?

There is also the way that an artist has to be self-motivated and find some structure in her days.  When to eat, exercise, write, research the next step, make stuff, and most importantly, make space for the inspiration.  This could be it?

A female cardinal has just landed at the bird feeder right outside the window where I am sitting and writing.  She is a beautiful red-orange with a brilliant yellow-red beak.  Her head feathers are bouncing up and down and she bobs for her breakfast.  She is in one sense calm and in another on edge, ready to fly at any moment. I wonder if she has come to find me? If she is my Grace?  I do not hear the other voices in my head right now and I notice that I have finally exhaled.  This is it.

~life coach and marketing session today.

~8 InterPlay Inspiration Decks sold in two days!

~Looking for young, inspired person to tweet for me….trade anyone?

~mourning the packing away of the Christmas decorations (don’t laugh at me!)

the true message for the day

~questions about curly or straight hair continue to plague the mornings.

~found my first wedding ring the other day (more on that next post!)

a whitecapped wave of perfectionism
knocks my mojo off its board
temporarily, I’m sure
drawn in to distraction
I check stocks (the market – down)
and ruffle through piles of paper
the weekend so blessed
this workday response can be little
more than
avoidance
of
success

copyright 2009/2010 by Stan Stewart and Music for the Moment, Inc

I have been using the deck for my Hospice work… Asking patients or caregivers to pick a card and see how it “fits” them.
Inevitably, the card is just right for the moment.

Some of the families I work with have logged onto the Interplay
website as a result of the cards and have grown interested in Interplay.
It’s a beautiful deck of cards and such an easy way to show what
Interplay is.

social worker, Hospice chaplain

So I brought my fun pack of round cards.  I was drawn to the Loosely and Tightly card…..I am thinking take it loosely….yeah…relax…then take it tightly….yeah….strangle it…till it can’t breathe…..back and forth back and forth…loose and tight. And then I turned the card over……Loosely and Lightly.  Aaaaah.  Ok.  No strangling involved whatsoever….interesting concept.  I am having to rethink this whole thing now….soften my grip and relax.

hard-working Mom with a corporate job

InterPlay Inspiration cards are easy to use and provide sweet insight into the everyday challenges.

under-employed, highly talented and trained person

I love using Anita’s InterPlay Inspiration Deck and the way it helps me tap into my own inner wisdom.  The suggested exercies are also a great way to bring InterPlay into my every day.

Mom, fierce advocate for the weak, dancer

]]> http://blog.mandaladesignworks.com/2009/12/what-people-are-saying-about-the-interplay-inspiration-deck/feed/ 0 http://blog.mandaladesignworks.com/2009/11/circle-of-inspiration/ http://blog.mandaladesignworks.com/2009/11/circle-of-inspiration/#comments Mon, 30 Nov 2009 11:31:05 +0000 Stan Stewart (Sawyer) http://blog.mandaladesignworks.com/?p=137 20-some people sitting in a circle.  Each one draws a card.  Well, not everyone.  There are 21 cards.  Round cards.  The InterPlay Inspiration Deck.

The 20-some must be 23.  The last trio shares a single card.

We’ve been improvising (pure InterPlay) for hours.  Stories.  Movement.  Intuition.  As the card slides into my finger tips, I accept that now-familiar picture and story.  It’s the Practice card.  Again.

Each person in the circle, in turn, shares what the card brings out from their life or experiences of the day.  Many quote from the card.  I repeat the phrase (again): “She knows that to change your life, you just need to change your practice.”  I enjoy that the message is an inspiration, a blessing.  Not the heavy way that I’ve held this sentiment other times.

InterPlay Inspiration Deck display

The sharing is beautiful.  People cry.  There’s a tear in my eye.  Anita is across the circle from me.  She’s in the trio sharing the Incrementality card with two other women.  She is telling us her experience of seeing the cards used in this circle in this way.

I am inspired.

At all three of those shows you can see and buy our inspirational jewelry, mandalas, photos, music CDs and other handmade artwork. Each artist has new material since our last show and some of these are not up on the web site. Given the custom nature of handstamped jewelry and personal mandalas, this may be your only chance to see these pieces of art.

Meanwhile, Anita has released The InterPlay Inspiration Deck. These 21 round cards are a testament to her incredible creative talent. Each one has a word or phrase (an InterPlay principle) to inspire your moment. Of course, that’s not all. The word on the card is illustrated with an ingenious colorful picture on one side and imaginative story on the other. You will be inspired by this deck. I’m not just saying that. I keep a deck at work and it’s been an inspirational life-saver. Stories coming here soon.

For today, I drew the card for Practice with the great story about the goddess who “knows what is best for you … She knows that to change your life, you just need to change your practice.”  I don’t know about you, but I need to be reminded about the stuff I already know.  Thanks for the reminder, Anita.  It’s great to get these reminders with a picture, a color, a story and the tangible, tactile sensations of the card in my hand.

So, check out Anita’s new InterPlay Inspiration Deck and come see our art at an upcoming show.

Bless you. Bless me.

InterPlay Inspiration Deck on my desk with the Practice card drawn

“Atul said.” or “Atul recommended.” or,( and I think this was probably the clincher), ” Atul really made me angry today.”

Before the e-mail about the Dawali holiday it had been weeks since I had heard from Atul. The cards were suppose to have shipped two weeks prior and I was a bit worried about what had happened. His e-mail said that there was a delay because the 42 page, 2.75 inch booklet was sticking out a millimeter over the 3.85 inch circle cards, and that was making it hard to shrink wrap them. These numbers are important because they were the bane of my existence for weeks, as we went back and forth trying to convince the printers that we had the sizes exactly right to fit into our 4 inch packaging tins.

We, would be Marci (my friend and designer,) and myself. She has also worked tirelessly for months on this project with me! There would be no deck without her!

I began to panic! Why was the booklet sticking out? I had paid $1000.00 to have a special die cut for the circles to make sure everything would fit perfectly. Now, they were about to ship and they were not perfect? And, they were only at 50% heat for the shrink wrapping! ( Not that I had any idea what that meant.) All I knew was that it threw me into an immediate stress response that had me shaking. I just sat at the computer wide-eyed, vibrating and spewing a long litany of the details of a process that no one really wants to hear about; a process that has been too much of my world for too many months! Stan just stood there saying, “It will be fine.” He clearly did not understand. Finally, I calmed down enough to hear the voice of a much higher Self saying, “Pick a card. That is what you made them for.”

On Behalf Of is what I picked. At first I hemmed and hawed, still stuck in my victimization. Then I turned the card over and read the story:

“When you call On Behalf Of there is always time for a cup of tea and a bit of conversation. She will make time to stop and listen. If you are at her house, she will offer you special paper and a beautiful amethyst fountain pen to write down everything that is troubling or upsetting you. She places all the papers in a dragonfly jar on her kitchen windowsill. Every week she opens the window on a bright sunny day and sends the concerns off to the light…”

no more concerns!

There is more to the story, but that is the part that made me stop and exhale. I got up and found a beautiful piece of paper and wrote down everything that was troubling and upsetting and scary (okay, just about the card project!). I put the paper in one of the tins and set it on the windowsill. Yesterday, the sun was shining and it was 75 degrees! I opened the tin and put it outside on the deck. That is where I found it this morning. It is empty now and I trust that the beautiful paper with all of my concerns written on it, has been carried off to the Light!

it is as if they are long awaited guests that i have to prepare for-relatives that i have not seen in awhile.  my relationship to them is kind of like that though. for months and months they were so present to me, day in and day out they demanded my attention.  they required patience, dedication and time, in large quantities.  and then one day they left and went to a far away land for a very long journey.  we had some contact at first as they got settled in but then, nothing…….weeks and weeks of nothing.  i kind of lost touch with them, found it difficult to focus on them or even to think about them.

then on monday, october 19th, chris (who works for fedex), called from missouri.  as an aside, he was so friendly and chatty that for a moment i almost considered the midwest as a possible place to relocate.  i am, obviously, easily impressed.  chris is the one that is really responsible for the clean porch.  he is the one that told me that fedex was slated to deliver on wednesday at 4:30pm.  he was getting information from me so that customs in new delhi, india could release the boxes to come to the united states. they left india on monday, went to memphis, TN and are – according to the fedex website-intransit to delaware water gap, PA.  even though there are no cards, i think a picture of the porch could be in order……..as an added bonus, that’s me in the glass of the door.  stay tuned!